Zadie Smith has imposed a 15-minute limit on how long her seven-year-old daughter, Kit, spends in front of the mirror.
The best-selling author found it frustrating to see her daughter's growing fixation with her appearance, so she contextualised the issue by highlighting how her son would not 'waste time' applying a laborious beauty regime.
'I explained it to her in these terms: you are wasting time, your brother is not going to waste any time doing this,' she said. 'Every day of his life he will put a shirt on, he's out the door and he doesn't give a shit if you waste an hour and a half doing your make-up.'
Talking at Edinburgh International Book Festival, she noticed her daughter's preoccupation with standing in front of the mirror, so decided on a principle: 'That if it takes longer than 15 minutes don't do it.'
'From what I can understand from this contouring business, that's like an hour and a half and that is too long,' she said. 'It was better than giving her a big lecture on female beauty, she understood it as a practical term and she sees me and how I get dressed and how long it takes.'
Fair point Zadie - is contouring practical? Not exactly. But is it a totally optional way to express yourself through make-up? Definitely.
Whether you're a full faced or barefaced kinda gal, we reckon it's a woman's choice to do whatever she likes - make-up or no.
